Lately I've been using timers daily

I use timers <i>constantly</i>. I call my personal rule &quot;There is no later&quot;. If I have a thought like &quot;When X i will do Y&quot; or &quot;In ten minutes I will X&quot;, I just treat it as near impossible feat like juggling balls on a tightrope unicycle. I&#x27;ve seen people do it, but I don&#x27;t have any idea how, and I&#x27;m certainly not going to make plans as if I knew how to do it.<p>I pretend that information cannot be transmitted across time except by machines, living things are mind-reset by Cthulhu at random intervals in a manner only studied at Miskatonic University.

I call my &quot;timer&quot; a &quot;nagger&quot; and use it via a shell nagme() function. Takes care of certain ADHD traits which were previously causing &quot;refocusing&quot; during unpleasant tasks, like emptying the washing machine (half or less clothes would go to the dryer and half would stay in the washing machine while I&#x27;d switch to other task). I learned to only turn off the nagger after completing a task and it works.<p>It&#x27;s used not just for time-sensitive tasks but also not to over-engineer stuff during hyperfocus.<p><pre><code> nagme () { [ &quot;$#&quot; -ne 2 ] &amp;&amp; printf &quot;usage: $0 [in_minutes] [text]\n&quot; &amp;&amp; return 1 printf &quot;sleeping $1 min before telling you to $2\n&quot; sleep $(echo $1\*60|bc) espeak &quot;$2&quot; &gt; &#x2F;dev&#x2F;null 2&gt;&amp;1 while : do sleep 30 echo -n &#x27;.&#x27; espeak &quot;I&#x27;m nagging you to $2&quot; &gt; &#x2F;dev&#x2F;null 2&gt;&amp;1 done }</code></pre>

Off topic, but just wanted to say I love the way this guy has repurposed a github repo to be a blog. One of the most effective integration of aesthetics and functionality of minimalism I&#x27;ve seen.

Taking a break from work and just going for a walk&#x2F;bike ride in a forest or visiting some interesting place while traveling and working remotely often gave me really great ideas that helped me to solve problems at hand much faster than sitting in an office, fighting with a problem. Like what would take me a week to solve was often done in a day when changing scenery.

This reminded me of this book: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;9778945-the-shallows" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;9778945-the-shallows</a><p>&quot;The Shallows&quot; by Nicholas Carr, I found it an interesting read, &quot;As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer&quot;

This reminds me of one of my personal rules... Whenever I turn on the dishwasher, I always set the delay for at least 1 hour (the smallest delay my dishwasher offers).<p>This is for a similar reason given in the github explanation -- even when I think I&#x27;m done, I almost always find one more cup or utensil that I missed.

Yes, also if you ever run into an issue that is stumping you for more than 30 minutes, take a breather. Guaranteed the solution will come to you while you calm down or you&#x27;ll come back and it&#x27;ll come to you. Don&#x27;t let yourself spend hours on a problem frustrated, it just makes solving it harder.

Years ago I reprogrammed my Pebble watch exactly for this.<p>Tap button once: +1 minute.<p>Tap twice: +5 minute.<p>Tap three times: +20 minutes.<p>Tap secondary button: Reset timer.<p>And this app was always in foreground.

Multiple timers!? Apple, hire this man!

You can also use `at` in POSIX-like shell<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linux.die.net&#x2F;man&#x2F;1&#x2F;at" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linux.die.net&#x2F;man&#x2F;1&#x2F;at</a>

I use org-mode timers[1] all the time, here&#x27;s youtube short[2] on that.<p>[1]:orgmode.org&#x2F;manual&#x2F;Timers.html [2]:youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;JbHE819kVGQ

For a while now I’ve been going on walks without my phone. It’s really nice. And freeing in a certain sense.

In my first job someone high up told me &quot;thinking is also work&quot; and it was the most valuable thing I learned at that company.

Timers are great, I&#x27;ve been using them for more and more things lately. I still want to make a proper server-backed app one day that syncs any timers between devices though. I often enable them in my phone but then put it away when working on something on my PC and the widget in the app would be a good idea. Maybe even a plugin for my editor!

I came across this app recently. It&#x27;s cross platform which is nice.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tom-james-watson&#x2F;breaktimer-app">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tom-james-watson&#x2F;breaktimer-app</a>

If someone wants a timer for tmux, I made one in bash <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fernandeslouro&#x2F;tmux-tempus">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fernandeslouro&#x2F;tmux-tempus</a>

The same goes for music. People plug in ear buds the second they sit down at a desk or step out the door.<p>The only time I find it hard to do things in silence is while exercising... mainly the treadmill.

Can anyone identify the font? I tried whatthefont but it&#x27;s only giving me paid fonts, I&#x27;m pretty sure this is a free font but can&#x27;t seem to find it.<p>edit: thanks for the answers

<i>&quot;All of humanity&#x27;s problems stem from man&#x27;s inability to sit quietly in a room alone&quot;</i>

<i>nods approvingly while reading hn instead of just sitting on a bench</i>

&quot;So I built one baked into my wm&quot;<p>wm? window manager?<p>It looks like part of a shell window on Linux maybe? Does anyone know a good resource on how to customize your shell like this?

Need it as a shell function in the Terminal :)

I wonder what the author means by “Slowly goes down to 0”? Does this timer have longer seconds than other timers?

That&#x27;s cool, but it seems arbitrary - since you can stop&#x2F;change the timer at will.<p>Still cool.

this is seriously true. if I’m trying to solve a problem, getting nowhere, then I go the toilet or get something to eat, very often when I sit back down a solution will just appear in my head. do not underestimate your subconscious

the clock app in windows 10 is pretty good for this - you can create multiple

Can anyone recommend a nice Mac menu item timer

This is the pomodoro method.

Stop listening to podcasts.<p>Enjoy the quiet.<p>I use to fill up my day with listening to podcasts during all non-work time (e.g. driving in the car, exercising, even showering).<p>It overloads your brain if it&#x27;s having to process info during every waking moment.<p>You brain just needs quiet time to think, relax and explore.<p>I&#x27;m way more relaxed, creative and find unique solutions to problems now, than before.